Under Normal Conditions
by Kingdom Crumbles
Summary: "Under normal conditions, everybody is more or less good. But tempt them, and they may suddenly change." During his battle with the Octava Espada, Uryu is captured to be used as a lab rat. Despite Szayels intentions to understand the Quincy through an academic lens, he soon finds himself following more unforeseeable motives.
1. Chapter 1

This story takes place after an alternate version of Uryu's and Renji's battle with Szayel in Hueco Mundo. Not everything about the world is revealed at the beginning of this story, and will instead be explored in later chapters. While the main characters in this story are Uryu Ishida and Szayel Granz, this story will feature various other background characters. This story will be told with "acts" for chapters and with "scenes" separating smaller parts in each chapter; each chapter will be approximately half an act.

Warnings: Future chapters will include depictions of physical and sexual violence. Neither of these are meant to be glorified or fantasized versions of violence, but rather to be violence shown through the lens of the characters they pertain to.

"Under Normal Conditions"

Act 1

**1.1**

A stifled cry interrupted his deep sleep. Under him was a cold material, not unlike concrete in its unforgiving nature, but he knew it wasn't concrete. It was something with the ability to suck all heat from his frozen form. His reiatsu was also dissipating, but not into the air as if fired from an arrow; it was swallowed into the surface below him, and he feared deeply that his physical form would also be swallowed. Straps pushed into his skin and forced his continual contact with the cold material. His feet were asleep, probably due to the tightness of the bands. The cry became more urgent, causing his brain to refocus. With more effort than thought necessary, he tried to open his eyes. The tearing sensation this action caused didn't deter him. Instead, he was edged on by the resistance. If his eyes weren't supposed to be open, that was just too damn bad. Another stifled cry gave him the final push.

Once open, he was blinded by the sterile lights above. Squinting against the sharp light provided him no comfort. He made an attempt at looking to the left, but the binds stopped his head from moving. Resorting to only eye movements, he looked left. A large computer spat more light at him, but this source was more bearable than the last. There were words floating across the screen, but, without his glasses, he couldn't make out a single one. Giving up on reading, he glanced to the right. A splay of red dominated his vision; long, red hair spilling off the dissection table. A pang resounded in his gut, but the reason why wasn't very clear. Looking slightly down gave him the answer. The man's body was sliced open from collar to pubic bone, and held open by surgical clips. A sharp cry caused his attempt to jolt up. Every instinct told him to fight, to assist, to save. The bindings laughed at his actions, holding him in place as he struggled.

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," A man snickered, causing his eyes to search the area he could actually see, "don't strain yourself, Quincy. There's nothing you can do with your reiatsu suppressed, so just be a good little Quincy and wait until it's your turn." First, he saw Ryuken; he was leaning over his mother's open form, taking what she had left to give. The shock of pink hair brought him back to the present. A toothy smile adorned Szayel's blood speckled face. "You might want to settle down, you'll give yourself a heart attack." As if the words on cue, Uryu's ears finally tuned into the sound of quick beeping behind him. He was familiar enough with hospitals to understand the heart monitor echoing his fears and anxieties.

"Kid," a gritted voice snapped his eyes back to the spill of red. Of course, the red had a face and that tattooed vision was looking very pointedly at Uryu. "Don't let this bastard get a rise out of you. I'm fi-," another muffled cry echoed in his ears, this time clearly from Renji. Looking down his naked, open body, Uryu could understand why. Szayel had stabbed into a bunching of muscle in his calf.

Szayel sneered as he pulled the long scissors out, "don't play the hero. It's not a good look on you and he doesn't believe it anyway." A glance was thrown at Uryu, a golden haze staring him down, in something of a challenge. Had Uryu's mouth not been bound, he would have spit a comment back. Instead of intelligible ridicule, a muffled growl rang out. Szayel laughed and walked around where Renji was bound. He moved deliberately slow towards where Uryu was trapped, blood covered scissors still in hand. It was only then that Uryu realized he wasn't bound lying down, like Renji. He was tipped back slightly further than ninety degrees. The bindings had been so tight that he felt as if he were lying on his back, but Szayel's face in front of his corrected his minds error.

The bloody scissors came back into his vision and, for a moment, Uryu was almost certain that he would be losing an eye for his muffled retort, but the jab never came. Szayel instead grabbed a piece of his hair, lifted the scissors, and cut it at the root. Uryu was fully aware at how the heart monitors already fast beat quickened. While he could control what his face and mouth projected, and kept a cold, unfeeling exterior, he couldn't trick the machine. Something told him Szayel was aiming to give him more than a haircut, but his motives were still unclear. With a sinister chop, another piece fell to the floor. He kept cutting until the only long pieces were in the back. "I'm going to put you back under for about an hour or two now that I know how much anesthesia you can take. I wanted to avoid an overdose earlier, considering you're not as replaceable as some of my other specimens," Szayel sighed in annoyance as he crossed out of Uryu's line of sight. After a brief moment, he was back with a syringe of toxic-looking goo, "of course I'd prefer for you to be awake for the procedure, but a human would likely go into shock: Quincy or not." Without further explanation, he punctured Uryu's arm and injected him with the hot liquid.

**1.2**

Incessant pounding; something scratching in his head and wearing on his nerves. If there ever was a time for civility and patience, it certainly wasn't now. His head hurt; well, more specifically, his brain hurt. He had never felt such a thing, but he was entirely certain that something, someone, was digging around in there. To say the least, he didn't enjoy the sensation. Without hesitation, his eyelids snapped open. He was now seated facing a large white wall; no nicks or scratches adorned the wall, no human imperfections maring it. The chair he was in had a high back that kept his head from moving. Yet again, he was bound with no hope of escaping his bindings. Trying to make a further visual observation, he glanced side to side, but the only things there were more white walls.

"Finally awake? I swear you enjoy wasting my time… Next time, I'm giving you less anesthetic. Who cares if you wake up in the middle." The voice came from behind him, sending chills down his spine. The question of Renji's location was shoved somewhere he didn't find himself looking. Instead, he was focused on the animalistic fear circulating his blood. "We're going to watch some home movies today, isn't that exciting? You should feel lucky, you're the first one to test out this new project. Or, should I say, projector?" He cackled loudly, the sharp noise quickly filling the space and raising goosebumps on his arms.

Another revelation quickly hit him, like a hard fist in the gut. He was completely naked, had probably been since Szayel knocked him out the first time. While this raised questions, Uryu wasn't as bothered by it as he felt he should be. His glasses also seemed to be missing, but his vision was the same as when they were on-it was possibly better. The Espada must have done something to his vision, but this also seemed unimportant. Rather than feeling concerned about these issues, he was more hung up on why he wasn't bothered. But then again, when you are being held captive by a mad scientist, should one really remain hung up on odd details? He should remain focused on the problem at hand. A light suddenly shone onto the wall in front of him, pulling Uryu out of his head. His eyes grew large, his heartbeat quickened.

On the wall, not even five feet in front of him, was a projection of his mom. She was smiling, a shining ray of light directed at him, but not him now. No, this smile was for a much younger him. A him that she was alive to see. If he had been able to comprehend any of it, he might have realized the stream of tears rushing down his face. Still, even if he had noticed it then, he wouldn't have been able to stop them. She was too much: too bright, too brilliant, too beautiful. And she was here somehow; or maybe he was there, back at six years old. He felt his own eyes pan over to Ryuuken, stoic and still. He was seated on a park bench; they were playing in the leaves. Suddenly, Ryuuken smiled and stood. He quickly came over to them and picked up Uryu, lifting him above his head quickly and somewhat recklessly. Laughter bubbled into his ears, causing Uryu to flinch in his chair. This wasn't real; or not so much not real as not the present. He wasn't there right now. He was in a chair, being operated by a sadistic puppet master. "Stop it," he ground out, now fully aware of the river running over his face.

The projection didn't stop. It showed him more happy memories of playing in the snow and rain and sun. It showed baking and gardening and sewing. It showed so many things that Uryu himself had not remembered. More happy times than he had counted. Of course, this happiness didn't last long; it never did. The happy memories shifted to one of his worst. He hid behind the cracked door, looking intently into his parents' bedroom. Ryuken was yelling again. Some things about work, some about money, some about family (but whether that meant Uryu and Katagiri or Ryuken's parents was anybody's guess). This was the first fight he had witnessed. Katagiri was in, what Uryu soon learned to be, her usual position, sitting on the edge of the bed, crying, with no effort to cover or explain her tears. She just sat and cried. Ryuken, on the other hand, paced back and forth; he screamed and shook his hands until he locked himself in the bathroom connected to their room, probably in order to refrain from physically hurting her. What he didn't realize was that the emotional pain was worse than any physical pain he could inflict on her.

Uryu's stomach hurt. He remembered it hurting then, too. While he was young, he was not foolish enough to think that this behavior was to be expected between married couples. He felt the need to go back and step in; preferably, he would shoot Ryuken full of holes until he finally apologized. Uryu scoffed, even at his current power level, there wasn't a chance in hell that he could cause Ryuken physical or emotional pain of any kind. There was an intrigued hum from behind him, "why did you scoff? This memory is painful, correct?"

While he knew his responses should be filtered, he couldn't bite his tongue. It was a kind of revenge on his past self; the self that did nothing to prevent Katagiri's beratement. "I didn't do anything for her and yet I blame him completely. Seeing it makes my faults clear." There was a hum akin to approval and the projection continued. Some memories were happy, but they started melding into a stream of fights, bullies, heightened tempers, loneliness, and finally death.

It was June. There was no way to tell this from the information shown of the projector, but Uryu could recognize the scene that would soon play out. It was summer and he had begged Katagiri to take him out. The sun had gone down a little bit ago and it was cool and pleasant. Uryu had taken her hand with the promise of escorting her home. Things hadn't been great lately; in the brief moments Ryuken returned home, the only thing he did was fight. Katagiri, of course, didn't blame him, because, Uryu guessed, she could never find him at fault. Without warning, her hand ripped from his, causing him to feel her crash to the ground beside him. His heart was in his ears. At nine, he had less medical knowledge than Ryuken thought he should have. With shaking hands, he pushed her body and started screaming nonsense dictated by fear. That brief moment of panic had felt like years, but, watching the taps, it was clear that Ryuken arrived within the minute of her falling unconscious. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder, urgency overpowering care, and grabbed Uryu with his other hand. A blinding flash got them to their destination; of course, Uryu could now recognize this as hirenkyaku.

Months spent in the hospital, crying over her, overwhelming loneliness, and the complete absence of Ryuken. The only good thing that happened during those three months was the meeting of his grandfather. He was the only one to comfort Uryu from the second month of her comma to the day she passed. The monitor flatlining brought Uryu's attention back to reality. His hands were in shaking fists and his teeth were clenched tightly. Tears didn't show any signs of stopping or even of slowing, this time due to sadness rather than unidentifiable emotion. "Why are you doing this," slipped past his defenses. The man behind remained silent, or maybe he wasn't even there anymore. Either way, the question remained in the air; something he couldn't take back. Of course, this wasn't the end. There was the brutal dissection of Katagiri, the gruesome murder of Souken, and even just general teenage angst to be covered, and Szayel didn't show him any mercy.

**1.3**

It was unclear when the torment ended and where blissful rest began; all Uryu knew was that he was awake now. He opened his eyes slowly, expecting the bright lights to overwhelm him. The utter darkness he encountered was a shock, to say the least. With a few more blinks, Uryu confirmed his first assessment; the room was pitch black to the point that no shapes could be made out. He sat up quickly, feeling the top of his head in a moment of remembrance. It had felt like a dream, but the smoothness he felt proved it as reality. The panic began to rise in his chest as his breathing quickened. This was bad. They had lost to a mad scientist who would now use them as his playthings. He was probably just in this room until Szayel had time for another experiment. And what about the others? Did different Espada keep them as trophies? Or were they already dead?

No, stop. He cut the thought off before he could think too heavily on it. They had to be alive and well, or, at least, well enough. They would win and come back for him. Or they would at least save Orihime, which was the most important thing. For now, he would have to look after himself; this wasn't so new. It would only be a couple of weeks, a month at most. He'd either escape on his own or be begrudgingly rescued by Ichigo. All he had to do was survive and keep his eyes open for opportunities. And he'd have to find Renji, but that couldn't be too hard since the Shinigami was never good at hiding his reiatsu. He took a second to reach out in his mind, looking for any sign of another living creature, but nothing came up. Szayel was most likely preventing his powers with this box.

After a few hours of thinking of worst case scenarios, Uryu found himself out of things to think about. He'd always been alone, so this really shouldn't be so hard. But, when he was alone, he always had a book or a sewing kit or even just the ability to seek out human contact. This darkness, this emptiness, was unlike any loneliness he'd felt. During this day of thinking about things he could do outside of the box, metal screeching together alerted him to a small source of sudden light. A tray was pushed through the hole, and then the slit was closed. Due to sheer boredom, he found himself feeling his way to where he thought the tray would be. With the small light source gone, it was impossible to see the thing. When his hands found a cup, he was surprised. His capture provided him with a cup of water, a sandwich, and an apple. At that moment, he didn't know if he was hungry or bored, but he ate the offered food without even considering that it could be a trap of some kind. Nothing happened and he wished he took more time to saver the meal. Eventually, the only thing to do was sleep. This process of thinking until he couldn't think of anything to think about, eating, urinating and defecating in a toilet he'd thankfully found in the corner, and sleeping on the unforgiving floor, only lasted a few days. Then a depressive period hit.

He found himself sitting in the corner, curled in on himself. The thought stream flowing through his head was entirely negative. His friends weren't coming to save him, if any of them were even his friends. They probably hated him. This was their way of getting rid of him, it was all so obvious. Ryuken definitely had something to do with it; maybe this whole box thing was his idea. There was no way to escape. This was where he would stay until death. This train of thought didn't last long, though. A couple of days later, he got out of his head through any sort of physicality. The idea of spending one more minute crawling around made him the idiot. Instead, he was walking in circles, keeping one hand on the wall in order to avoid a collision. He considered doing more intensive exercise, but, considering the one meal a day he was given, anything more intensive seemed foolish. He was also only given two cups of water, which he had estimated, in his thinking period, to be about 12 ounces each. Szayel seemed to understand that humans needed food and water, but the amount he was giving was incorrect. But there was no way Uryu was going to ask for anymore.

After five more days, he found himself punching walls with the blurred image of Szayel, Ryuken, and even Ichigo in mind. It was a better physical release than walking, but his hands were always bleeding and he was in a constant state of exhaustion. His mind wasn't working, hadn't been working for months now. Or minutes. It was hard for him to tell at this point; there was no way of counting other than memory, and that wasn't serving him well lately. The good thing is that his eyes finally adjusted, so he could see the blurry outline of the toilet shoved in the corner, and the nothing else that was with him. "Fuck," the wall bit back, but he lost track of the feeling once hearing his own voice. It had been forever since he heard anyone talk and he could've sworn it was someone else. In a second, the thought was gone and he found himself laying down on the floor to try and sleep some of the thoughts away.

Five more days and his fists weren't the only things bleeding. With his eyes adjusted to this level, he could see the way his skin came up under his uncut nails, but he couldn't bring himself to so much as feel the pain. The only thing that distracted him from the incessant scratching was the sound of metal scraping together: his food and water. There was no way to wash his hands and, while this had bothered him during his thinking period, he now found himself eating the food while his hands were wet with blood. When he woke up-had he gone to sleep-the blood was dry on his hands, but this didn't matter. He just reopened anything that healed and created new patches of torn up skin. His ears perked at the sound of metal, the opening scritch, the beginnings of soft light. "Hey!" His voice came out without him realizing, or maybe it was by choice in the moment and then suddenly forgotten, "what is this about? Can't you just-" The food was pushed in and the slot was closed. For a moment he was silent, but that moment was short. With a booming clang, he threw the tray-the food, the water-at the door, "FUCK OFF!" His head was spinning, his own words echoing in his head-but, then again, who else's words would be in his head? The realization that he had wasted his days' supply of water hit him like a ton of bricks and he fell to the floor loudly weeping. There was no censorship in his thoughts, so none came to mind.

In a few days, the bursts of anger stopped. In fact, everything stopped. He found himself-or couldn't find himself-back in the corner he'd found in his first depressive period. Of course, the reprise of his depression was a total showstopper. He didn't think, talk, stand, sleep, eat, or drink for three days. Eventually, everything stopped.

**1.4**

The monitor, to which he'd been glued for a consecutive 172 hours, showed the same picture it'd shown for the past 70 hours. Had he not had such a critical eye, he would've thought the screen was frozen. Until Uryu fell, of course, which was something that had been expected approximately 170 hours ago. With a sharp command, Lumina and Verona scurried to the room Uryu had been kept in for the last twenty-three days. While they got him, Szayel stood and stretched. While he was not human, his body still didn't enjoy that much stillness. He would also have to replenish soon. The subject had just been too interesting within those last 172 hours to step away from the monitor for even a second. The two came bumbling back in, the boy lifted above their heads. He was considerably thinner, paler, and just plain closer to death than he'd been before. That was good, though, considering he only should've lasted a few days.

The two fraccions placed Uryu on the dissection table. Szayel grabbed the saline IV and perfectly inserted the needle into Uryu's arm. He then put a nasogastric tube through his nose to get any sort of food into his empty stomach. This was all that seemed necessary but, after seeing his arms, Szayel thought it best to treat those as well. Taking the same machine he'd used on Uryu's head to speed the reformation of skin, Szayel fixed his torn up arms. Just to give them both some peaceful days, Szayel decided to induce a coma with a variation of his previous anesthetic; it should knock him out for a few days. Giving Lumina and Verona the responsibility of doing some general cleaning of his body, Szayel went back to the oversized monitor.

His books of notes covered everything that had happened during the past twenty-three days, but he had never been a man to half-ass his work. Fast forwarding through the tapes the second time through, he checked every note made and continued adding new things spotted and creating new theories. Though embarrassingly wrong, he'd thought the subject would only last three days before having a major breakdown. Instead, he just dipped a little. It took ten days for him to start causing himself any sort of physical pain, and five more days until he inflicted that pain directly onto himself. At twenty days, he officially gave up and opted for death. That was the official end to the mental side of the experiment, but it had been a good idea to wait out the physical side too. A human might've died, not that he was not human, but he had something in him, maybe it was that damn Quincy side of his, that pushed him to live longer than he should've.

Sorting through past files, he found what he'd been looking for. Out of the twelve humans who participated in this experiment, Uryu had lasted the longest by a longshot. The person who survived for the second longest only lasted eight days, having stopped eating and drinking day four. It was impressive, the time he'd lasted. Szayel found himself sparing a glance in the Quincy's direction. He was a piece of art: bones jutting out, skin paler than paper, tubes elongating his features… Szayel felt a weird surge in his body, the same surge that made him save the boy from death. Pushing it aside, he took more notes on the experiment's success.

**1.5**

With a jolt, he sat up; a head rush being enough to lean his head into his hands. That made the tubes obvious. They encircled his body like venomous snakes, piercing his skin with a vengeance. Without a thought to what may happen, Uryu started ripping the tubes out. Running on pure adrenaline gave him a strange ability to not feel anything as he finished ripping out the tubes. The fresh blood running down his arms was warm, a nice contrast to the freezing temperature of the lab. Throwing his legs over the table, he made as if to stand, but quickly crashed to the ground. The unceremonious thud must have been alarming because, when he regained consciousness, he was met with Szayel's shoes. "What is this about? I go through all this trouble of patching you up just so that you," he squatted down and made eye contact with Uryu, "can pathetically knock yourself unconscious? Really, I should keep a running count of the number of times you pass out, it's getting ridiculous." The feeling in his body started to return and he started slowly rising to his hands and knees, Szayel still squatting in front of him. "You woke up a bit early, you should still be sedated. Fighting that groggy feeling will just land you face down on the floor again." Uryu, now successfully balanced on his knees, glared daggers into the Espada. Szayel placed a hand over his heart, the other one coming to fake dab at his eyes, "and here I took time out of my busy schedule to save your life and even put your arms back together."

"Go to hell," Uryu ground out, trying again at standing. Szayel frowned, standing before Uryu could fully straighten up. Once Uryu was up, though, he took some time to properly rest against the dissection table. When he felt balanced, he moved away from the table and started walking. Szayel, somewhat confused and extremely intrigued by his specimens behavior, had no choice but to follow him. Without warning, Uryu turned on his heels to face the Espada, "where is he?"

Szayel raised an eyebrow, "where is who? And where are you going?" Uryu scoffed and turned away again. He walked a little bit faster, but his steps were unsure and sometimes he swayed a bit. It made Szayel want to laugh, but he repressed the urge and settled for watching his subject flutter around the lab, dodging in and out of doors.

Again, he stopped in his tracks and turned on his heels, "where did you put him? This lab is large, but I'll find him eventually with or without your help." Uryu's teeth were clenched, his arms tensed at his sides. Unlike a normal human, who's hand would be closed in a tight fist, his was flexed open, ready to grab his bow. Without his cross, Szayel doubted he'd be able to properly manifest a bow. And, with him being this weak, using any power seemed out of the question.

Szayel, again suppressing a laugh, tried to be rational with him, "you have to tell me what you mean. I'm not a mind reader."

Uryu glared again, not that he ever actually stopped, "Abarai. Renji Abarai-where did you put him? Is he in a place similar to mine? Or did you give him his own little slice of hell?"

The way he searched the ceiling for answers made Uryu's glare intensify. Szayel, surprisingly enough, wasn't acting forgetful; he'd genuinely forgotten that he took in that Shinigami along with the Quincy. It was just that the Quincy was so interesting and new and the Shinigami… wasn't. Finally, he located the man in his memory, "well, if Lumina and Verona have been taking proper care of the specimens, then he should still be here. But I'm not promising anything. I haven't checked in on him since the beginning of your experiment." Suddenly, Szayel grabbed Uryu around the waist and used Sonido to quickly take them to where Renji might be. Uryu felt sick. They were standing in front of a wall, which made him glare. Szayel smirked. With too much flair, Szayel clicked in an invisible pin and opened the now apparent door, revealing the contents of the room.

Uryu stopped breathing. Renji lied on the dissection table, body pulled open, the same he'd been so many days ago. He had to be dead, Uryu thought again and again, but Renji's labored breathing proved otherwise. Szayel quickly stepped into the room, causing Renji's breath to quicken at the sight of him. "So they managed to keep you alive? That seems more like a waste of resources than anything… I am terribly sorry for my absence, I completely forgot you were even here. But I suppose I should take responsibility for you now. Let's see, what can we do with you…"

Slowly, Uryu came to Renji's side. The binds around his wrists had turned his hands a discolored blue: they blistered and smelled of death. Uryu took a hand into his, quickly dismissing any thought of the hand being foul or disgusting. Renji's eyes met his and then looked deliberately behind him. Attempting to avoid attention, Uryu slowly looked a little behind him to a cart with a splay of tools on top of it. A small, sharp scalpel drew his eye immediately.

Uryu had never paid much attention to medical classes, or any class that focused on the human body. Having witnessed the dissection of his mother left a bad taste in his mouth which still lingered. He only knew the basics of first aid and how to make himself not immediately bleed out if attacked by a Hollow. Seeing the body open like this, though, showed him just how clueless he really was. However, he did understand something very simple; cutting through veins and arteries was bound to quickly end Renji's life. Uryu looked back at him, just to make sure he understood right. Unlike Ichigo, Uryu did not believe that everyone could be saved. Unlike Orihime, Uryu did not have faith in things getting better. Unlike Chad, Uryu was not above ending someone's life. Renji pleaded for Uryu to end things and Uryu understood this need. Szayel was too caught up in his thoughts to notice the subtle transaction between the two.

He grabbed the scalpel and, in one swift motion with more power than he had, sliced. Uryu quickly cut up the inside of Renji's chest, not even flinching at the blood that squirted out. His arm was suddenly twisted back, fingers gripping him tight enough to bruise. He was thrown back, causing a Szayel sized space between him and Renji. The Espada reached into Renji's chest and pulled out the man's heart, displaying it to Uryu. He then bit into it, causing Uryu to stumble back more. Szayel finished his snack in a few bites, not bothering to wipe his mouth after.

"Kid," a raspy voice called his attention back to Renji. The man had a soft grin on his face, "thanks." Within seconds, his breathing finally stopped. Uryu couldn't find the pain he knew would later arise in his arm, nor could he find the fear he should have of the Espada in front of him. All he could feel was the blood cooling on his skin and all he could see was the dead Shinigami he'd fought beside. Abarai was a lot of things, but he wasn't a bad man. And someone as decent as him didn't deserve something as horrible as this; something this dark and painful; something that made him opt for suicide.

"Quincy," the Espada hissed, refocusing his thoughts, "what gives you the right to waste my research specimens? His death was not your call." Fight or flight surged in his mind, but, right now, he was in a position to do neither. If his actions cost him his life, though, it would have been worth it. Szayel's fuse seemed short, a harsh scowl taking up the majority of his face. He seemed to absorb the panic, completely dominating the room, "now that we're running short of lab rats, you'll have to take up double duty. How would you like to spend a month in the box?" Uryu could feel himself start to shake. He'd rather die a gruesome death than go back to the box; anything was better than that hell. Szayel seemed to understand this, a sharp smirk suddenly replacing the scowl, "of course, if you'd be a little cooperative, we could commence another experiment. One in which you'd be able to use your powers. How does that sound?"

He didn't want to help the Espada. The monster who was responsible for the loss of Renji's life, the monster who had locked him in a dark box for what felt like an eternity, shouldn't be helped in any form. Szayel looked down on him, the ultimatum sinking in. There was nothing worse than the box, "I'll do it."


	2. Chapter 2

"Under Normal Conditions"

Act 1

**1.6**

Lifting a hand to the top of his head, he hesitated. There were no mirrors, so he couldn't see the progress his hair was making, but he was sure it had to be longer now than before. Now, he just had to work up the nerve to touch it and find out. It would be simple, really. Slowly, so slowly it was painful, he placed his hand atop his head. A soft, short layer of hair greeted his palm and made him tense up. At that moment, Uryu realized that he had never felt a shaved head before. His hair had been long since he could remember and there was no way he would ever ask to feel someone else's hair. The sensation was quite bizarre. Though the hair was soft, it was also sharp against his palm. He spent a good while simply feeling the thin layer, imagining what it looked like and wondering just how much time had passed. How long did it take for hair to grow to this length? He was unsure of exact numbers, but this amount of growth had to mean at least a few weeks. So much had happened in those weeks, most of which he'd already succeeded in suppressing.

It's been four days since Renji's death, though Uryu himself didn't know that. There was no way for him to tell time other than when he slept, but that was inconsistent and he still couldn't be sure of anything if it was. Especially since he didn't even make an effort to track days while in the box. He removed his hand from his head and adjusted his shirt once more. If someone would have told him he'd have to wear an Espada's clothes, he'd have said he'd rather be naked. But, having been naked for an overwhelming amount of time in a freezing cold room, he chose to sing a different tune. Still, the outfit was uncomfortable and succeeded in stripping him of more of his identity. The three fourth sleeve turtleneck was surprisingly cool and the wide legged pants were pleasantly flexible, but he doubted in his ability not to snag them while fighting. He'd always designed skinny fit pants to avoid any possible snags while in battle. Of course, the entire outfit was white, something Uryu was comfortable with, with the exception of three black stripes running down the middle of his shirt, just a little symbol that he belonged to the Octava Espada, and the black socks under his white sandals.

He had been given these clothes as another incentive to participate in Szayel's new experiment. While the Espada's excitement had given him chills, the "treat" was still snatched up quickly and without question. Today was the day he'd be able to use his powers again. It was hard to think of the last time he went more than a day without practice and the idea of using them again did, he begrudgingly admitted to himself, excite him.

His room was not unlike a cell. There was a shitty bed in the corner with thin sheets and something he didn't really consider a pillow. A toilet, that was surprisingly normal, sat in the other corner of the small room and he did count himself lucky to have a flushable toilet and toilet paper. There was also a small sink next to the toilet, which he often found himself running his hands under the warm water just to be doing something. The best detail about this 48 square foot room was that the light was always on; he somehow doubted that he'd ever be able to relax in darkness again.

The wall quickly slides open, causing him to refocus. Szayel stood before him, a cocksure grin splitting his face, "I'll take you to the training room. In there, you will find your weapons. Once you are ready, the experiment will begin. Your job is to fight until you no longer can and absorb as much reiatsu as possible. Understood?" Uryu nodded, not trusting the quality of his voice. He was nervous; was this all an elaborate scheme to kill him? But, then again, Szayel could choose any moment to rip him apart limb from limb, so he really shouldn't dread on that now.

Szayel took him down a short hall and then touched the wall; as if his hand unlocked it, the wall slides upwards. He felt the breath quickly leave his body; this was the same room they'd originally fought Szayel in: him and Renji. Renji would be pissed to see it back in pristine condition. Uryu quickly shoved that thought into the back of his mind; all thoughts of Renji were unwelcome at the moment. When he got back home, when everything was safe and it is alright for him to be vulnerable, then he'd properly pay his respects to the man he'd fought beside. Right now, though, those emotions would only get him killed or horribly stuck. Neither of those would do.

Uryu took a breath and then stepped into the large room. A burst of reiatsu filled his dry lungs. It had been so long since he'd felt this sensation that he didn't realize just how deprived he had been. The door closed behind him, leaving him alone with the sensation. A few feet ahead of him was a table, on which was his Quincy Cross and Seele Schneider. Using hirenkyaku, he moved faster than he intended to, just like he did when first learning how to use the ability, and stumbled into the table, knocking the Seele Schneider onto the floor. With only a little embarrassment, he picked up the fallen ones with reverence, enjoying the slick feeling in his hands. Szayel had put a belt on the table, which he took and placed the Seele Schneider on. He then wrapped the belt around his hips, the weight comfortably familiar. Next was the cross, which laid unceremoniously on the table. With great honor and pride, he lifted the small cross and examined it. It glowed blue, reflecting his signature. Uryu wrapped the chain around his wrist, wasting no time sinking into the powerful sensation the bracelet restored in him. He had been naked for too long.

A new door in the back of the gym opened, and Hollows began to quickly funnel in. He took a breath, steadied himself, then raised his arm, effortlessly forming his bow. The reiatsu tingled as the vibrations of his bow ran up his arm. The feeling was comforting, to say the least. Without hesitation, he began to shoot the oncoming Hollow. At first, it was easy to fend off all the low-level Hollows Szayel threw at him, but soon the number of Hollow coming in grew to be overwhelming. He'd shoot three hundred and be greeted by five hundred more. A few of the Hollows got close enough to cut him, but, using Seele Schneider, he cut them right back. Fighting off these closer Hollow, though, allowed more Hollow to sink into space. Soon he was just shooting arrows to shoot, without much concern as to where they went. He was going to lose, this much was obvious. And, if he died like this, it probably wouldn't be as bad as if he allowed Szayel to dissect him. A few more Hollow got close enough to cause damage him and the battle seemed to be over.

Without warning, a burst of reiatsu enveloped the room. His body almost seized at the amount that flooded his system, his bow expanding and contracting without control. The Hollows closest to him disintegrated upon contact with him and his leaking energy. Uryu took a deep breath in, attempting to stabilize himself. He needed to reign it in and use it to fight. With this amount of power, he thought for just a moment, he may even be able to defeat someone like Szayel. Another Hollow came bustling towards him, pulling him out of his thoughts, and he took another breath to control his abilities. The bow stabilized, though it was significantly larger than normal, and he pulled back the string, an arrow forming in his hand. Releasing the arrow, it remained true to target and hit the oncoming Hollow in the head. Quickly, he released arrow after arrow, disintegrating every Hollow in the room. When the room was empty, he smirked. Szayel had underestimated him and Uryu was proud to have won this little challenge. He was about to call out to the man when more Hollow began flooding the area. These ones came in so fast they blurred together. His smirk dissipated; round two was no joke.

He shot more arrows, destroying virtually every Hollow in the room. But, every time he was almost done with them, more Hollow flooded in. Soon enough, there was no point when the room was empty. There were always more Hollow, no matter how many arrows he fired. He absorbed more reiatsu and became dizzy. Lightheadedness accompanied his high and the amount of energy he was exerting at the same time was probably not helping. He shot more arrows, killed more Hollow, and absorbed more reiatsu until his head felt like it'd explode. He was unsure of when his vision completely went out and he hit the floor, but it was somewhere around what he thought to be the twentieth wave of Hollow.

Before his body could hit the floor, Szayel managed to kill every Hollow left in the room. No new wave came as he picked up the boy and exited the field. He took Uryu to the lab quickly, but not hurriedly; for he wanted quick test results on the boy's physical exertion and he, to himself convinced, was not concerned about the boys well being for reasons other than Uryu was his specimen and good for experiments.

Once Szayel was sure Uryu was stable, he removed the cross and Seele Schneider from his person and gave them to Lumina and Verona to put away. It took a day for Uryu to wake up; Szayel used that time to file a proper report on the events of the experiment. Once Uryu was awake, he was taken back to his room and given instructions to rest and wait for the next experiment.

**1.7**

Uryu was awake and ready long before Szayel could come to retrieve him. He was excited, for lack of a better word, to continue the experiment. Though he had lost the never-ending battle of the last experiment, Uryu had felt alive again. And he missed the feeling of reiatsu running through his bones. When Szayel got him, he followed on the scientist's heels to get to that room. Szayel explained quickly, "this time the number of Hollows will be limited, but your survival is completely dependent on you. If you can beat all of the Hollow, you'll live. If you can't, you'll die. Understood?" Uryu, with only slight hesitation, nodded. This would be easy. He just had to defeat so many Hollow and he could actually win; unlike the last experiment that had been rigged for him to lose.

Stepping into the room felt like a breath of fresh air and he found himself addicted to the substance. His weapons were on the table again and he wasted no time in putting them on. The only thing new in the room was a scoreboard, not unlike the one in his school's gym. It displayed "1000" in neon red. While this looked like a threat, he took it as a challenge. He only had to fight one thousand Hollow, this was possible. He was sure he killed close to that last time and he'd be damned if he couldn't do that again.

The door opened and Hollow began flooding in. He took a breath, centered himself, and began firing, Quickly, the number on the scoreboard diminished to five hundred. He couldn't feel his chest filling with shallow air, nor could he feel the tearing sensation in his arm. All he could feel was the vibrations in his bones as he fired a stream of arrows at an unyielding number of Hollow. The number was at two hundred when he felt blood streaming down his arms. They had been cut by his own weapon, this he knew but didn't dwell on. He'd keep going until his arms fell off if he had too. Soon, only a hundred Hollow stood between him and victory.

Alternating between absorbing reiatsu, releasing arrows, and taking in shallow breaths, he got the Hollow down to fifty. His vision began spotting black, but he continued to shoot regardless. The last Hollow was killed messily by a few broken arrows that had barely managed to find their target. Regardless, the buzzer still went off, signifying the last Hollow's death. At the sight of the zero, Uryu allowed his body to give out.

Szayel again entered the arena and picked up the Quincy. For a minute, he was afraid the boy would lose, but he'd been proven wrong. Having a goal and not just fighting until he couldn't seem to motivate the Quincy and allow him to fight longer. Previously, he'd only been able to defeat around seven hundred Hollow before passing out. This time, knowing the amount left, he defeated one thousand Hollow before proceeding to pass out. His subject was interesting and surprisingly able to do more than previously noted. Again, Szayel took care of the boy, removed his weapons, and allowed him to rest in the lab until he was completely stable and taken back to his own room.

**1.8**

The only light came from the streetlamp above him, adding to the b-rated horror movie atmosphere that surrounded him. If his sister would've asked him to pick up her juice earlier in the day, or really any time the sun was still up, this wouldn't be such a big deal. But, no, she could never just ask him to go to the store at a normal time. She always had to ask in the dead of the night, when Karakura looked like a crime scene rather than a town. At least he was almost home, he thought. It was only a few more blocks, but it was dangerous; he knew it was more dangerous than meets the eye.

He stopped at the vision of a man standing only a few feet ahead of him, under the next street lamp. Had he always been there? Keigo thought he could've just missed him while lost in thought, but he wasn't sure of anything. Suddenly, the lamp above Keigo went out, leaving him in darkness. A chill went down his spine and he felt his body lock up. The light the man was under flickered, then went out as well, causing Keigo to drop the juice he'd bought for his sister. A needle was jabbed into his arm and everything went black.

Uryu woke up with more energy than last time. He felt proud, in a sense, and once again excited to continue experimentation. His capture, if spent like this, wouldn't feel very long at all. And it'd make him a better fighter, which he'd rub in Ichigo's face. When Szayel came and got him, he quickly followed the Espada out. Szayel smirked, but Uryu was too giddy to be put on edge. "This time will be similar to the first in that the Hollow will keep coming no matter how many you defeat. Don't worry, I'll pull you out before you can be killed," Szayel opened the door and Uryu quickly went into the room, "but, once you pass out, I will make no effort to save him."

Uryu stopped, almost tripping with the suddenness. The door shut quickly, leaving him and his classmate alone together. The boy was frantically looking at the wall away from Uryu, Seele Schneider in his hand as if it were a lead pipe. Uryu closed his eyes and took a breath. Upon opening them, he hoped that the boy would be gone, but his hopes were not reality. Keigo Asano stood, shaking like a dog, not five feet away from him. This was no longer a fun challenge. It was a fight for another's life. "Asano," the boy frantically turned, fear dilating his pupils. He stood still for a moment, looking over Uryu in an attempt to make sure he was who he sounded like.

The boy suddenly ran towards him, grabbing him in an oddly tight embrace. Almost comically, tears appeared in his eyes, "shit, Ishida, I'm so glad to see you. I almost didn't realize it was you, but your voice and that look you give means it's definitely you. Was it staged then? Like a whole weird fake thing? I thought it was impossible that you-you, you know, but I was told that was like a grief thing and shit I'm just so happy to see you even though things are like… well, you know better than me, I guess. Anyway, you understand this crap, right?" Keigo pulled away, but held Uryu at arms distance, "I don't know what's happening, I just woke up here and fuck this room is so creepy I feel like I'm about to die and I can't die yet there's so much I have to do! I've never even had a girlfriend! Or my first kiss! And I want the college experience so fucking bad! And if I don't show up for class tomorrow, Ochi-sensei is gonna kill me since I've already missed a week so I really need to get-" Uryu slapped him, grounding Keigo in the now. It was harsh, but Uryu was unsure of the amount of time they had and he had to let Keigo know about the gravity of the situation quickly.

Keigo looked down at his shoes, like a kicked puppy, and remained silent. Uryu sighed, "I'm sorry, but there's no time for you to ramble. Asano, the one who's holding us here has no qualms with letting us die. Soon, a stream of monsters is going to come into this room and I'm going to defeat them, all of them, so that you will live and be able to go home. Don't worry about the number of Hol-monsters that enter because, no matter how many enter, I won't let them hurt you. But you need to do something for me." Keigo was looking intently at him, seemingly understanding more of the situation than Uryu thought he'd be able to, "I need you to stay between me and this back wall. We'll leave no space between us so that nothing can touch you, alright? But I need you to remain there and not interrupt me unless there is a threat to your life that I don't see. You can't ramble about nothing and distract me, alright?"

Everything in him read serious, something that surprised Uryu. He'd expected the boy to disregard him and start rambling again, but he instead put his hand on Uryu's arm and gently squeezed, "thank you, Ishida. I'll stay out of the way. Good luck, I guess." It was out of character, to say the least, but it was also deeply impactful. Uryu nodded and took the Seele Schneider out of his hand. Going to the table, he retrieved the rest of his items. He put the belt on quickly but held the cross in his hand as he took a position close to the wall. Keigo stood with his back to the wall and his chest in direct contact with Uryu's back. This was the safest way Uryu could think of to fight what was to come, even though the closeness of Keigo's body was odd. With a breath, he put the bracelet on his wrist.

The door opened and Hollow began to funnel in. He heard Keigo gasp, then cover his own mouth in an attempt to stifle the noise and not distract Uryu from his task. He took another deep breath, then felt the reiatsu run through his arms to form the bow. Keigo jerked back behind him, but there was nowhere to go, so he just bumped the wall and then Uryu's back. Under different circumstances, Uryu might've laughed at the reaction to his weapon. But this situation was no laughing matter. Uryu centered himself once more, preparing for the onslaught of Hollow that was now coming toward him. With a final breath in, he took a moment to let the vibrations fill his body, inadvertently sending the vibrations down Keigo's own bones. The boy tensed, then relaxed, calmed by the feeling similarly to Uryu. He pulled back the bow and formed an arrow, almost singing Keigo's hair with his drawback, and then released arrow after arrow of pure light.

He wasn't counting, but he knew he'd defeated at least seven hundred Hollow at this point, judging by the amount of blood streaming down his arms. He could push past this, he knew; he'd done it before, what was one more time? His vision started swimming in pools of black, letting him know he was most likely close to one thousand now. Szayel said the Hollow wouldn't stop, but Uryu chose not to believe that. Because hope powered people like Ichigo, Orihime, and Chad. And he'd be damned if the only thing preventing Keigo from living was his own hope.

"I need you to hold my waist," the words were strained and Keigo, for a moment, doubted they were real. But he could feel Uryu shaking through the amount of physical contact they currently had and, after taking a moment to process the words, he wrapped his arms around Uryu's waist. The Quincy's legs gave out not a moment later, but he was able to keep firing arrows, though now the arrows were directly slicing Keigo's arms alongside Uryu's, a small price to pay for surviving. Uryu managed to beat around two hundred more Hollow through the method of channeling all of his energy to his upper half, but he knew his arms would soon fail him, as well. But that didn't matter; as long as he could stay conscious, he could continue to fight.

A few Hollow slipped past his deemed bubble and slashed at him and Keigo. The blows hit his arms and legs, but he was able to prevent any of them from hitting Keigo. He grabbed a Seele Schneider and sliced back at the Hollow, ending their existence and saving his own life. Once again, the Hollow were far enough away to shoot at, so he threw the Seele Schneider to the ground and started shooting. He defeated another couple hundred Hollow before the deep gashes in his arms prevented him from being able to pull the bow's string.

Keigo was unable to contain his startled yelp as a glowing blue surrounded them. Luckily, the glow scared the Hollow back for long enough for the strings to wrap around Uryu's body. The glowing light made him seem almost holy, Keigo found himself thinking. He wasn't scared, he also realized. The light was comforting and Uryu's straightening figure was reassuring. "You can let go," Uryu said, snapping Keigo out of his haze. He quickly dropped his hands from the man's waist and watched as he pulled back on the bow. All the damage that had been inflicted on Uryu seemed to go unnoticed and he was able to use his body again. It was truly amazing.

Uryu shot arrow after arrow, killing any Hollow in sight. While the arrows took longer to pull back, there was less physical stress on his body and he felt like he could continue for much longer. The Hollow kept coming, and Uryu kept shooting, and Hollow kept coming. Blood had stained his entire outfit red, a stark contrast to the glowing blue that emanated from Uryu's own body. Keigo knew that he would most likely die here. But he was glad Uryu was the one to try and save him because he was so strong and just so much more incredible than Keigo had ever thought. Why Ichigo had chosen to hang out with this nerd over him now made perfect sense. Someone like Uryu, who was quite literally killing himself to save someone as utterly pathetic and worthless as him, was rare to come by. And Ichigo always liked selfless people like Chad, Orihime, and even Uryu.

A Hollow managed to get close enough to cut Uryu, but he didn't cry out. He quickly took a Seele Schneider and killed the monster, but not before it could get a few more deep gashes into his body. The pain was unbearable, to say the least, but that didn't stop him. In the time it took to defeat that Hollow, two other Hollow managed to get close and start cutting at him. Keigo watched on in horror, terrified of what was to come. "Fuck," Uryu exclaimed as a Hollow hit particularly deep into his chest. He'd been trying to stop any sound from coming out of his mouth so that Keigo wouldn't be scared, but that one slipped out faster than he could stop. He killed the two Hollow, but now four more were closing in. "Shit," another Hollow sliced his arm so deep he feared it may fall off. Again, his vision swam and he felt the strings loosen from his body.

No. He wouldn't-couldn't-let them fall. He sliced at the first Hollow, but another one got his calf and a third got his arm again. The strings loosened once more as a string of curses and grunts left his mouth. He killed another Hollow, but the three others were still alive and five more were about to get in on the action. Keigo watched Uryu begin to slump as the light lessened and the strings that had wrapped around his body loosened and sagged. Uryu's legs became completely unraveled and Keigo barely managed to grab his waist just before he fell. A particularly loud, "fuck," left Uryu's mouth as Keigo's arms dug into the large cut in his stomach, but Keigo chose to keep holding tight despite the pain he knew Uryu was feeling. Hot blood ran down Keigo's own arms as he held Uryu, but he knew that all the blood on him was Uryu's. His brain couldn't help but try to remember that one first aid class he'd taken while still in the scouts. They'd said something about how a person could only lose so much blood before going into hypovolemic shock. He'd remembered, at twelve, this stupidly long word because there was a test at the end of the course that involved prizes for the person with the best score. Basically, hypovolemic shock meant that if he lost enough blood, something around 50% of his blood, his heart would just stop pumping blood to his body which would cause his organs to shut down and, of course, death.

The strings unraveled from Uryu's torso, the only things now working being his arms and neck. He continued fighting the Hollow as more of them got into the inner circle. A few more gashes and Uryu's arms flopped down to his sides, his head to his chest, the strings having completely disappeared. A rush of panic came over Keigo. He was going to die. That empty funeral, the lifeless people who were supposed to be his friends, a father without a eulogy… that'd soon be his. Before he could completely unravel, the limp man in his arms drew his attention. "Throw me to them and try to find a way out of the room while they're distracted. You need to run fast, they won't be fooled for lo-"

"No!" Uryu flinched in his arms, the sudden passionate outburst surprising him. "You've done so much for me," Keigo laid Uryu down on the floor and then took a Seele Schneider from his belt. Eight Hollow were slowly moving closer, hesitating on account of the sudden drop of spiritual pressure. He threw a smirk over his shoulder to Uryu, "It's my turn to be the hero, even if it's just for a moment. Thank you for trying to save me, Ishida. No one else would willingly let their body be torn apart for someone they don't even talk to. You're an amazing guy; I wish I could've known you better." Keigo stepped away from Uryu, even as Uryu tried to stop him. There was nothing Uryu could do, though. His body wouldn't move, not even his mouth would open anymore, and his vision was going in and out. Keigo walked forward with confidence; he was going against eight Hollow with a weapon he couldn't even use. For a second, Uryu's eyes played tricks; he could see Keigo emanating a vibrant pink, similar to the blue that had surrounded him. Uryu had hope, for a moment. His vision began to fade once more, but he found himself staring at the student as he began running towards the Hollow.

Keigo held the Seele Schneider like a lead pipe.

**1.9**

Uryu lay, once again, on the dissection table in the main lab. He was connected to those same tubes and wires that made him look like an art exhibit rather than a person. He'd been unconscious for days, but Szayel couldn't blame him. He'd almost died during that last run of the experiment and Szayel didn't want him to stir for a little bit. He needed time to organize the information and create a formal report. He stopped staring at Uryu's prone form and looked back to the oversized computer monitor.

The first experiment wasn't very interesting. Uryu absorbed enough reiatsu to defeat seven hundred and thirty-one Hollow, which was impressive but not exciting. He'd passed out due to exhaustion and over absorption of the provided reiatsu. In the second experiment, having a goal made him pace himself and hold out just a bit longer. He killed a thousand Hollow. It was interesting to see the number rise by about three hundred Hollow simply because he had a goal, but still not very exciting.

What was interesting, though, was the effects that humans presence had on him. Uryu didn't seem to care that much about self-preservation, but he did care deeply about saving other people. This need to save someone else made Uryu continue shooting even after his body started to give out. What was very exciting was the technique he called on, the one where the strings supported his body for him and allowed him to keep fighting until he sustained too much damage to even hold that ability. Another odd detail was Uryu's ability to sway the human he was protecting. Before Uryu had entered, and before a threat was even known, the human was panicking and shaking so hard Szayel feared he would wet himself. But after Uryu talked to him, he calmed down. He also refused to use Uryu as a distraction for him to escape. He instead decided to try and protect Uryu once the man was unconscious.

Of course, he didn't last two seconds before being torn apart limb by limb. He screamed and cried and finally just died. Szayel stopped the experiment before the Hollow could finish off Uryu, though. But that wasn't because of any particular reason. It was more that he needed him for research. So then it was for a particular reason, it's just that that reason was not personal in any form or fashion. Szayel was a great scientist and all great scientists were completely unbiased. They didn't interfere with experiments and allowed what would happen to play out. And Szayel usually allowed subjects to die when it happened, but most subjects were a dime a dozen. Uryu was unique, he was not replaceable; that's what Szayel forced himself to think as he typed the rest of his report.

**1.10**

The beeping picked a hole in his brain. Everything in his body wanted to remain unconscious except his mind. The wheels were turning and every memory of the battle to save Keigo flashed to the front of his mind. He sat up, eyes snapping open, and began ripping the cords and wires out of his arms, not unlike the first time he'd woken up on this table. Once again, right as his feet hit the floor, Szayel appeared in front of him, "Why are you up and in such a hurry? You need rest or else you'll cause your body-" Uryu took a swing at his face, pushing his whole body into the punch, but Szayel easily avoided the attack and Uryu stumbled past him. "What are you trying to do, Quincy?" The boy came at him again, this time trying to tackle him to the ground. Szayel let him get close and then grabbed his left arm in one hand and wrapped his other hand around Uryu's neck, squeezing only enough to let him understand the situation, "Let me try again; what do you think you're doing? Your body is not healed enough for you to be fighting again, so why are you trying to charge me?"

"You killed him!" Uryu screamed, his free hand coming into Szayel's gut. The scientist hardly felt the weak punch, but the attempt still offended him, "You're a monster! How dare you drag civilians into th-"

Szayel squeezed his neck hard enough for Uryu to start choking on his words. The blocked airway causing his face to turn a pretty shade of blue. When the choking started slowing, Szayel released the boy completely and let him crash to the ground, gasping for air. "I don't think you understand your situation, Quincy. I am in control, whether you like it or not. I am the one who decides who lives and who dies. And here I thought you'd be happy to learn of where that little human currently is."

Uryu, still gasping for breath, registered the words slightly later than they entered the air. Once he understood their meaning, he scrambled to his knees and looked up at Szayel, "he's alive? Where is he?" Szayel looked down on him and cocked an eyebrow at the pathetic form. His subject was truly willing to do anything to ensure the well-being of others.

"Come over to the monitor," it took Uryu a pathetic moment to get up onto his feet and follow after Szayel. The Espada quickly typed and clicked until a video feed was pulled up. He'd hacked into the Karakura hospital's security cameras and the screen now showed a comatose patient. Uryu sighed in relief. The brunette teen connected to a copious amount of tubes and wires was most certainly Keigo Asano. And the monitor next to him showed a steady heartbeat. Uryu stopped himself from crying as relief washed over him. "Now that you can see he is fine, will you stop directing your anger towards me? We were doing so fine before," the Espada looked to the Quincy, terror bubbling behind his golden gaze. Somehow this shifty gaze didn't scream signals at Uryu.

"I still don't appreciate you bringing in humans and I won't participate in any more experiments if they're also going to be involved," Szayel would've normally snapped back that Uryu was in no position to order him around, but the pouty attitude the Quincy had was awfully endearing and he found himself biting his tongue. "I'm glad he's safe now, I thought you'd let him die."

Szayel smirked, "oh, believe me, I didn't save him wanting nothing in return." Uryu lifted an eyebrow, curious as to what the request would be. "I need a more," Szayel scanned the messy room, which he hadn't had a chance to organize or even sweep since the humans first came into Hueco Mundo, "competent assistant. Someone to organize, clean, and input data. Since you're going to be unable to physically fight for the next week or so anyway, I figured this job would be well suited for you."

Uryu couldn't help as his mouth fell open, "you want me to be your assistant? Don't you have fraccion for that?" As if on cue, two round Hollow came bursting into the room, one chasing the other. They were screaming, a high pitched whine that made Uryu's skin crawl. As they chased each other around the lab, knocking over and breaking the things in their path, Szayel ran his fingers through his hair and sighed like a tired father who'd given up. That made Uryu want to smile, but he quickly stifled the action, opting for a more blank facade. The two continued to screech as they ran out of the room, leaving the two alone once more. "Alright," Uryu began, "I'll be your assistant under some conditions." The scientist raised an eyebrow but allowed the Quincy to continue, "you're absolutely not allowed to bring anyone else to Hueco Mundo. Humans shouldn't be dragged into things like this." Szayel took a second to pretend to think about it and then nodded yes. "Second, I need a better room. With a shower. That has hot water. And I need new clothes every day, not just when they're torn apart. And I want a mirror, too."

Szayel looked down at him, but Uryu did not take back a single request. He wasn't asking for anything huge, he just wanted basic human things that Szayel had not yet given to him. The Espada sighed for emphasis, "yes, I suppose I can provide that. But you're going to have to wait another day before it's all here. In the meantime, you should sleep in your current room. Rest up, there's a lot to be done. I got behind because of you."

Uryu nods and follows Szayel back to his cell. Once alone, he sits on the bed with his head in his hands. Keigo was fine, he would survive and wake up soon. And then he could tell people where Uryu was and someone would be able to get to him faster. And then he'd be taken away from this hell. Uryu was unclear as to when he drifted off to sleep, or even when he laid down, but he was woken from his peaceful slumber at the sound of the door rising. He quickly jumped out of bed as Szayel entered his small room. The size of the enclosure forcing them closer together than he was comfortable with.

"I've finished the room, are you ready?" Uryu quickly nodded and they left the small room forever. They crossed the hall and Szayel lead him to the door for the training room. At Uryu's suspicious glance, he let out a little laugh, "I rearrange the halls to make our trips fast and easy. You can't move as fast without your powers, but those have to stay repressed unless you're in an experiment." Szayel touched the door and it slid open to reveal a room much larger than his previous cell. The room was actually bigger than his bedroom at his apartment, but it had far less stuff jammed inside of it. Against the wall, not rammed into a corner but instead placed against the right wall middle of the room, was a king-sized bed that looked much softer than his cells metal bed. There were also a good amount of soft looking blankets and pillows that he immediately wanted to get acquainted with. Tucked away in the corner was a chair that looked just as comfortable as the bed. There was also a closet, which he assumed to be full of the same stock outfit he'd been wearing since the beginning of his experimentation. Szayel lead him into the room and showed him to an adjoining door that opened into the bathroom. There was a non-sinister looking toilet, a sink with soap, a shower with soaps and what he assumed to be hair products, and towels. There was even a rug that looked squishy. He didn't set foot in there yet, though. Szayel final left, telling him to rest some.

Rest would have to wait. For now, all he wanted was to hop in a hot shower and steam away all of his stress. He stepped into the bathroom; from this direction, he could see the toilet and shower. He knew that if he'd turn around, he'd be greeted by the sink and the promised mirror. He didn't turn around and instead quickly undressed and entered the shower. He turned the water hot enough to turn his skin red and quickly relaxed into the spray. The last time he'd actually showered was before coming to Hueco Mundo. Sure, he'd used the shitty sink in his cell to wipe himself down, but nothing beat the feeling of hot water rushing over your body. He used the soap to softly wash his overused and abused body. It smelt nice and relaxed him even further. Next was the hair. He took too much shampoo in his hand, for he was used to washing something longer than this, and lathered it into what had grown back, which was slightly more than the last time he'd felt. It was still off-putting, but he knew he'd have to look eventually. Washing out the shampoo, he didn't turn off the water; he stood under the spray for much longer than necessary and let the heat sink into his previously chilled bones until he felt like he'd pass out.

Uryu turned off the water and stepped out of the shower onto the rug. He wiped off with the provided towel, wrapped it around his waist, and took a centering breath. He looked at the mirror, for the first time, and was met with its foggy face. He shook himself out, further preparing himself for what was to come. With a shaking hand, he wiped the mirror with the hand towel. He looked back at the mirror, meeting the eyes of his own reflection. What was most noticeable was the dramatic haircut. The buzzcut did nothing for his thinning face which, he admitted to himself, was concerningly more thin than it had been before. The bags under his eyes were deep and slightly discolored. His cheekbones jutted out unhealthily and he found his fingers tracing the bones. He was pale, sickly even. He doubted he'd recognize himself if not met with the damning mirror's reflection. It was surprising to think that Keigo was able to know who he was in an instant.

He ran a hand through his hair, or what was left of it, and took one final look in the mirror. Too skinny, too pale, too dead. He looked like he'd just attended his own funeral. With a sigh, he walked away from the mirror and out the door. He went to the closet and grabbed clothes, quickly changing and collapsing into bed with the lights on. It was unclear as to when he finally fell asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"Under Normal Conditions"

Act 2

**2.1**

Working with Szayel was surprisingly, and blessedly, uneventful. Uryu ended up doing most of the work, since Lumina and Verona were annoyingly incompetent, and Szayel was suspiciously busy with other experiments. Uryu currently found himself tasked with imputing data into the oversized computer in the middle of Szayel's lab. He wasn't sure how long it had been since he started this odd job, but, judging by the amount of food he'd eaten, it must have been more than a week. Interactions with Szayel were brief and they felt closer to work acquaintances than enemies. Uryu couldn't really say he minded this new situation. He was given three meals a day and an ample supply of water. He was also never pushed to work very late, so he actually was able to get on a somewhat normal sleep schedule. That is, if the night terrors didn't bolt him awake ten times a night.

While his circumstances were far less than ideal, they were in no definite way bad. The menial paperwork, data entries, and filing were blessedly distracting and he found himself able to forget the terrible place he was trapped in even while organizing it. The only time he really found himself thinking of the dark box, or of Renji's open body, or of Keigo striding into the group of-He abruptly cut off that train of thought and focused on the papers in front of him. He still had countless stacks to input, because, even though Szayel claimed to be perfect, he was awfully far behind on this menial work.

The soft padding of footsteps alerted him to the man walking up behind him. He didn't turn his head to greet him and instead kept typing and shuffling through the documents. Szayel came to his side and watched as he made a few more entries, "how many have you completed so far?" He didn't sound impatient, but instead genuinely intrigued. Uryu had spent long enough with him now to be able to tell the difference.

"This," he finished typing and shuffled the folder to the bottom of the stack, "makes the 67th experiment imputed today. I'll most likely finish around 80 by lunch and I have been letting Verona and Lumina file them one folder at a time because any more than that is too much."

As is on que, Lumina ran into the room. She slid to a stop by Uryu's side and then proceeded to bounce up and down, "Lumina finished first!" Uryu showed the creature a soft smile which caused her to bounce with more enthusiasm, "next, next!" Uryu reached for the bottom folder and handed it to the bouncing Hollow. With an elated noise, Lumina ran out of the room and to the file room.

Szayel was shocked, to say the least. That those two imbeciles could do so much as file one singular file was a surprise to him. They'd never been able to do it before. Or maybe he just didn't have the patience and gave them too many at a time. Either way, he was impressed with the discovery Uryu had made and was, quite frankly, excited to watch the video feed of when Uryu taught them this trick. Purely for analytical reasons, he assured himself. That those two could learn was a whole new concept to him. "I have to commend you," this caused the Quincy to look up from his work and to the Espada at his side, "I didn't know Lumina or Verona could be useful for anything but fuel."

The Quincy grimaced, then threw a halfhearted glare, "you just have to be patient with them. They're slow learners and can't handle much, but they still have the ability to do something as simple as filing. And don't worry, I have a feed of the filing room up so that I can make sure they're doing it correctly." Szayel's eyes drifted to the monitor and he found himself amazed once more. There were multiple tabs pulled open at once so that the Quincy could fully see the two bumbling about in the filing room, the sheet he was currently typing in, and a couple other tabs that he seemed to find of use. Szayel was unsure of how the Quincy had even figured out how to access the security cameras. "How long have you had them?"

Szayel was surprised at the little question. The Quincy seemed to be getting incredibly comfortable around him and treated him as a boss or teacher rather than an enemy. He frequently asked him little questions and made bold comments on the work he was given and did so many things Szayel was not expecting. Not after the Quincy showed him such disdain. It seems that just the lie that Keigo Asano was still living was enough to make the Quincy tolerate him. His subject was just too interesting. "Not long. I only got them after becoming an Espada, so about five years. Do you want the exact numbers?" Szayel made a move as if to grab the mouse, leaning in closer to Uryu, but Uryu stopped him with a raise of his hand.

"The estimate is fine." Szayel shrugged and straightened back up. Uryu started inputting data again, seemingly done with their conversation. Szayel turned and began walking away, but he was stopped by Uryu's soft second question, "are they still alive?" Szayel glanced back at him. Uryu's back was impeccably straight and he typed almost as fast as Szayel himself. It looked almost as if he'd never talked at all, but Szayel knew his hearing was perfect. The question hung in the air for too long, Szayel searching for the right way to answer it. He could tell the truth, lie, or dodge it; two of the three would open something in Uryu he wasn't sure he was ready for.

"You should get back to work, Quincy." He saw the small slump of the boy's shoulders and almost wanted to change his answer. If he said they were alive, the boy would be beaming for weeks, no doubt. And if he said they were dead, an equally impressive pout would live on his face for those weeks. Both were promising and interesting to look into, but neither was appropriate considering his current time restraints. Considering the current state of his lab, using a normal, calm, collected Uryu was his best chance at productivity and progress. "Lunch will be served in your room whenever you're hungry."

The Quincy nodded, but kept his focus on the computer ahead. He was worried. There were many reasons for Szayel to avoid giving him an answer. If they were alive, they'd eventually come save him and hope was not yet lost. But if they were dead… he might also prefer death. Either way, it was better for Szayel to keep him in the dark. Uryu sighed, hoping that they were all safe.

**2.2**

Szayel was being something along the lines of nice to him. It was, in all, very confusing but not unwelcome. The meals he was given were good and not the same everyday: sometimes it was pre-packaged sandwiches, or hot soup, or even pork and rice. While he had been suspicious of the meals, especially the meat options, he was now sure that they had been coming from a convenience store somewhere in Japan. That is, if the packaging of the items read true. How Szayel was getting such things was a mystery to him, but he ate the food with little complaint. Things could be much, much worse. Szayel also kept commending his work and he'd even started running ideas by him. Uryu would be sweeping or filing and Szayel would suddenly appear, file in one hand, pen in the other, and just start talking to him as if they'd been working together their whole careers. As if Uryu was an esteemed colleague rather than a prisoner of war.

Uryu sat at the monitor and completed his last entry. Szayel had seemed to underestimate him today, for he completed all the work given to him: including the entries. Lumina and Verona bumbled in, hand in hand, and landed by Uryu's side, "we've finished! Next, next!"

Uryu held the last file just out of their reach, "good work. This is the last one."

Lumina took the file, but Verona prevented them from jumping away. "No, no! There are more! Verona just has to lead you back," he started tugging on Uryu's sleeve in an impatient gesture to stand. Uryu complied and, out of sheer curiosity, followed their bouncing forms down the halls. They lead him past the filing room to a part of the lab he had yet to explore, not that he had seen very much of it. The two stopped and opened a door that led into a room stacked high with papers sans files. This was a disaster zone. Uryu had thought Szayel was behind on the menial work due to the amount of unfiled files, but at least those were together and comprehensible! This room was just a mess of loose papers thrown about and Uryu dreaded the start of this new self assigned assignment.

He looked to the two Hollow who were merrily jumping besides him waiting for some kind of response, "thank you. You can go file that and I'll start on this. After you file that, bring me as many folders as you can carry." The two showed matching grins, which had creeped Uryu out the first few times he'd dealt with them but that he now found almost endearing, and bounced out of the room. Uryu found a small smile on his face as he glanced over his new task. This one would be very strenuous and wonderful. He'd often helped Kisuke keep up to date records on his transactions and he even made the man a filing system that made sense; Urahara's previous method of filing had been throwing miscellaneous papers into a box and hoping for the best, something Uryu could not excuse. The man did, due to Uryu's persistence, pay him. And, for all that he tried to skirt around Uryu's small fee, he was usually called to the shop around once a month to undo the damage Kisuke had done to his own shop. Uryu loved organization; he loved knowing that everything had a proper place and that it was his task to find it. This work wouldn't be any different than organizing the shopkeepers mess.

Uryu picked up the first paper on the leaning stack in front of him and felt his eyebrows knit as he glanced it over. It was a look into human world bugs. For all that Szayel claimed to be above humans and the human world, the experiments Uryu had come across pointed to a deep infatuation for all things human. Looking back to the looming stack, he found that the next paper was completely unrelated to the one he was holding. This room was more of a mess than he'd previously thought; notes completely unrelated to each other were just piled together and he had to go about twenty pages in to find another page about damn bugs. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, or rather what had regrown of it. It wasn't as awful and foreign to touch now that it had grown a little more and felt closer to normal, albeit extremely short, hair and not like prickles jutting out of his head. He was already mourning when it would grow to the length of Ichigo's hair. Ichigo would probably laugh and make some comment about him being a copycat. If Uryu was taken away from here before it grows long.

He shook his head, physically trying to free the thought. Ichigo would come, just like he annoyingly and consistently always did. Maybe they'd all come for him and, together, they'd defeat Szayel and leave. He'd have to tell them to retrieve Renji, or what was left of him, and he'd ask Orihime to heal Keigo once home. Everything would be fine; everything was fine. For the moment, Szayel was being something akin to kind and hospitable. He could live another week, month, y-he refused to say what would come next for fear that he'd jinx it and end up staying for 365 days.

Lumina and Verona made a noisy entrance and managed to trip each other at the same time, the folders they had been carrying spilling all over the somewhat clean areas of the room. Uryu sighed as they made their way back to their feet, sheepish grins covering their faces. "It's alright. You two can go, I'll do this by myself." They lit up and, with alarming speed, started chasing each other out the door. At this point, Uryu really couldn't tell who was chasing and who was being chased. He let out a soft laugh and then turned back to the work at hand.

All the papers on bugs went into one folder, the bug folder, and all the ones on space and too many reasons as to why humans couldn't currently live on Venus went into another, the space folder. Uryu found some experiments on Hollow and the exact points of transition from an Adjuchas into a Vasto Lordes, though Uryu was quite unsure of how helpful this information was to him in particular, he did take mental note to inform Urahara about this insight later. There were a few interesting experiments and some that went completely over his head or that he found ridiculous and absolutely useless. Still, all of this compiled information gave him a deeper look into the Espada he'd begun to know. Uryu managed to get through the first stack, of course now there was a stack of uncompleted files in its place, and decided to move on to the stack of papers to his left. He took the first paper and froze at the first sentence.

It was the notes on "the ability to conjure blue light" and how the subject had "used the light to hold himself up, as if he were a puppet on strings." As he continued reading, the paper went into depth on theories of how the light was produced and used. It was interesting, to say the least, despite being mostly theorized and incorrect. When Uryu had used that ability during the fight against the Hollow, he'd thought Szayel already knew about it. It had never crossed his mind that he might have abilities the Espada didn't know about. But that did have to be, in hindsight, the reason why Szayel was keeping him around. He could never just not know something. Uryu had no doubt he'd later, when in better health, be asked to use ransotengai again or at least to explain it. He wondered if he'd be able to keep it a secret, not tell Szayel some Quincy secrets that had, somehow, managed to stay hidden all these years later. He probably wouldn't have the option to, considering Szayel could just grab another human and repeat the Keigo scenario if he disobeys. Uryu sighed, he'd just have to avoid the topic. Begrudgingly, he put the paper in a new file, the Quincy file. Sorting through the pile was easy, and, as he continued to shift through it, he found more papers on his fighting techniques and how he was stronger with a purpose than without. Uryu almost laughed; he could've told Szayel that much. A Quincy's job was to protect humans and fight Hollow, no matter the cost to oneself.

Uryu filed the papers and kept digging. There were papers relating to stress eating, which he put in the eating disorder folder, and more papers on bugs (just how many bug inquisitions had been made?), which he placed in the bugs folder. Close to the bottom of the stack, Uryu found another paper relating to the experiment he was in. This one wasn't about him, though.

It read:

_Subject 83442_

_Name: Keigo Asano_

_Age: 16_

_Height: 172 cm_

_Weight: 127.6 Lbs._

_Race: Human_

_Gender: Male_

_Blood Type: AA_

_Status: Deceased_

The paper continued in great detail about the boys transformation from fear to determination through petty words and empty promises. Uryu couldn't stomach it and quickly turned and released the contents of his stomach onto the bug folder. He sat there for a moment, breathing heavy and afraid he'd throw up again even though there was nothing else left in him. Szayel would never lie on his own notes, but he would most definitely lie to Uryu. He was beyond furious and wanted to find and destroy Szayel with more power than he had. The man had killed Keigo and then lied about it. Every positive thing Uryu had built with the man swirled right down the drain. He had to leave. There was no telling who else he would hurt just to make Uryu release his abilities. And Uryu couldn't handle another good person's death on his hands or in his nightmares.

He folded the paper and hid it in his pointlessly long sock. This was a reminder of his weakness; a reminder of how he could've done better. It would also serve as testimony to Keigo Asano's untimely death. He'd show it to Kisuke when he finally got home, which would have to be tonight. Even if he had to survive the sands of Hueco Mundo without his weapons. He could rely on speed, which he'd have once out of this draining lab. But how would he get out? There was no giant led exit sign; hell, there were no real doors. Again, as if on cue, the two round Hollow spilled into the room. They crashed into a pile of papers, knocking it over and giving Uryu a better understanding of why everything had been so mixed up in the first place. Still, seeing them was a good thing. They could help.

"Lumina, Verona, would you like another assignment?"

**2.3**

The wall rose, creating a door to his bedroom. Two round Hollow bounced in so silently Uryu doubted it was actually them. Though, with all the lights on and previous plans set, it was clear who had entered his bedroom. Uryu rose from his chair and walked towards them. Verona grabbed his hand and turned to lead him out of the room, Lumina closing the door behind them. The three rushed down the long halls of the Octova Espada's lab, quickly arriving at their destination. They made quick work of pushing aside a dissection table, revealing a trap door. It opened with a small tug and seemed to be a pitch black tunnel to nowhere. For a moment, Uryu doubted the validity of the "secret tunnel" the two had told him about. Lumina hopped in without hesitation, Verona pushing Uryu in after. He grabbed onto the ladder when instructed to "hold on, hold on," and started down after Lumina, who made quick work of climbing. Verona pulled the trap door closed as she made her own way down the ladder.

Uryu recognized just how shitty this plan was. Not only was he to escape the lab into a desert of Hollow and find a way back to the human world (hell, he'd settle for Soul Society at this point), but he had to keep these two alive until he could find a Soul Reaper to cleanse them. The risk was calculated and, though the probability of him getting home was low, he had a better chance at getting home once out in the sands of Hueco Mundo than stuck in the cold marble of the lab. Besides, he was tired of waiting around for Kurosaki to save him; he'd save himself and aid in any war effort still needed. If he could get out, he could get home. At some point, the ladder hit the floor and they started walking. He bumped into Verona a few times, due to the darkness, Verona's heights, and his speed, but everything else was fine. His eyes had begun adjusting, but the path was basically straight and vision seemed almost unnecessary.

"Climb, climb," was the only warning Uryu was given before he ran right into the ladder ahead of him. He sighed and rubbed his face, maybe his vision hadn't quite adapted. He started climbing and found himself blinded as the top of the tunnel was opened. The time that had passed in the tunnel was undeterminable, like most things in the lab had been, but he was sure it had to have been over an hour judging by the overwhelming brightness of the opening. Verona disappeared into that light, prompting him to keep climbing. He was almost there, he could feel the starts of reiatsu welcoming him. It was so exciting, he didn't feel himself speed up. It felt like that first drink of water he'd had after refusing to drink while in the box; something he'd never truly appreciated until he was starved of it. As he got closer to the opening, he braced himself for the overwhelming flood of energy, both physical and mental, that was bound to rush over him. He grabbed through the hole, felt the cold sands of Hueco Mundo slice into the spaces between his fingers, and started to pull himself through. Once his head was out of the hole, his newly adjusted vision quickly locked onto a splay of red that soaked through the sand between his fingers. His eyes moved independently of his wants, trailing the red sands to land on the remains of his tunnel guide.

A flood of pain assaulted his thoughts before he could dwell on the death of his newly made accomplice. His vision left the corpse and instead focused on the foot that was currently crushing his fingers. Rather than forcing himself back, Uryu pushed out of the tunnel. The foot held his hand captive, forcing him to bend awkwardly beside his pink haired capture, but the embarrassment would prove worth it if he could manage to slip away from the cocky scientist. He wasn't planning on making any real effort to fight, he wasn't that brash, he just had to get his hand free so that he could run. The reiatsu filled him completely and, if not held down, he could use Hierenkyayu to escape the situation.

"Where do you think you're going?" The man's words caused Uryu to finally look at Szayel's face. He didn't look happy, if the Kurosaki-esque scowl was anything to go off of. There seemed to be a dark energy swirling around him and, of course, there was an ominous blood spatter decorating his left cheek. Uryu tried to tug his hand out from under his foot, but Szayel simply pressed harder into the ground. There was a clear snapping sound that told Uryu his hand had to be completely shattered. Despite the crippling pain, he tugged his arm harder. If he had Seele Schneider, he wouldn't have hesitated to cut his hand clean off. It would hurt like hell and, while he was not completely ready to deal with the consequences of that decisive action, he wished he had the ability to cut it off and escape, like a lizard dropping his tail. A lost hand was nothing compared to the punishment Szayel was bound to give him for attempting an escape. Still, he didn't have the weapons to carry through with such an action. Uryu tried to drag his hand away again, but instead had his forearm crushed by Szayel's other foot. A scream both of surprise and pain forced its way through his throat. That stomp couldn't have caused a clean break, the bone had to have been crushed, and the force that Szayel demonstrated as easily as breathing was nothing less than terrifying. "I'll ask again," he drew his sword and, with no hesitation, stabbed deep into Uryu's forearm, bringing him closer to the ground with a screamed cry, "where do you think you're going?" It took Uryu's brain longer than it should've to understand the speed at which Szayel had removed his foot to avoid stabbing himself instead of Uryu's arm. This demonstration did disturb some of the confidence he had in outrunning the Octava Espada. Still, he'd rather try than give in to the creeping doubts of defeat.

Uryu gritted his teeth, breathing all too hard through his nose, and assessed the sword running through his forearm; it wasn't ideal, but it would do. Szayel breaking his arm served more in his favor than he previously thought. The break would allow for the sword to slice through rather than getting caught on bone. He threw his body weight to the left, causing the sword to slice clean through the right part of his arm. Szayel's own surprise caused the weight in his foot to lessen enough for Uryu to wrench his arm away. He quickly got to his feet and leaned forward to run, but was grabed by his open arm by an unforgiving grip, a scream tearing through his gritted teeth. Before he could even devise another plan of escape, Szayel dragged him close and, using the momentum of the Quincy falling forward in his favor, punched the left side of his jaw. Before he could fall into the sand, the Espada managed to grab him by the front of his shirt and punch him in the gut twice. His vision was swimming and he was unsure whether or not he'd puked.

Something in him told him to fight back, keep some of his damaged dignity, but another, much louder, voice told him to just pass the fuck out. That voice sounded suspiciously like Renji, though he couldn't be sure if that was a phrase previously said by the Shinigami or if the words were solely a creation of his near comatose state. Showing no mercy, the Octava Espada threw a final punch to his nose. The loud crunch was the last thing he heard before completely losing consciousness.

**2.4**

Szayel held the limp Quincy by the front of his white shirt, which was now stained with streaks of red. It took every ounce of control he had not to keep punching until the pretty Quincy was unrecognizably and horrendously beautiful. A squeak from the ground shifted his animalistic thoughts. Lumina's head peeked out of the hole in the sand, where she remained seemingly frozen from fear. Szayel dropped the Quincy and grabbed the round fraccion by her left pigtail. He raised her high enough to prevent her feet from touching the floor. She squealed like a pig before slaughter and had the audacity to try and wiggle out of his grasp. He lifted her higher by her hair and slammed her into the ground repeatedly until he felt satisfied. There was too much work to be done in the lab and he felt quiet pent up from lack of violent experiments. This beating was nice; the Quincy ought to attempt escape more often.

He shivered; that wasn't necessarily his true want. Lumina and Verona were fun to beat to a pulp. They were only faithful because of their depressingly low level of intelligence, so there was no harm in getting rid of them time after time. Uryu, on the other hand, was an irreplaceable specimen. The Quincy was unlike anyone he'd ever met; he was smart, for one. Uryu could keep up with the Espada's own train of thought, though he was far away from matching Szayel's own intellect. It was impressive, though, and Szayel wanted to keep him for a bit longer. There were also more experiments that required his involvement and he couldn't participate if he were deceased.

Ignoring the incessant flood of excuses for keeping the boy alive, Szayel leaned down and picked up the broken Quincy from the sand. He quickly traveled through the tunnel leading to his lab. Szayel placed Uryu on the previously moved dissection table and made quick work of removing his shirt; it would only prove a hindrance when healing him. Uryu's right arm and hand were clearly broken and his arm was even cut clean from the middle of his forearm. His face was bruised on the side and it was entirely possible that Szayel had shattered his jaw-and there was really no investigation needed to assess the Quincy's broken nose. Though, seeing the bruising covering the boys abdominal region, Szayel did have to question whether or not some ribs were broken. He sighed and started working.

It took nearly an hour to fix the boy's broken arm, hand, abdomen, and face. Even though he was aware of the long amount of time it would've taken for the bones to heal on their own, the amount of time his serums and gadgets took to heal the boy was ridiculously long. He'd have to make something else that'd work faster; there was no time to waste, especially since he was down two, for the moment three, assistants. Uryu let out a sleepy groan. For a moment, Szayel feared he was already waking up, but that didn't seem to be the case. He groaned a little quieter and then stopped all together, falling back into a state of complete unconsciousness.

Szayel's eyes landed on Uryu's jaded face. While he had repaired the jaw and nose, the bruising still lingered. It would fade soon enough and didn't pose any threat to the Quincy's life, so it wasn't worth repairing. And it was a lovely sight; a brilliant red stained the area under his eyes and the line of his jaw. Soon, it would be saturated with a deep purple; what a treat that would be.

He left the boys side and went back to the main lab. He'd been reviewing the footage from when Uryu had trained the two fraccion to file. It was interesting and definitely entertaining. Of course, he'd watched more footage of the Quincy, just to observe his behavior and work habits, and was able to see him being led to the trash room full of miscellaneous experiments. So far, he'd been giving the Quincy harmless experiments to enter, but he was unsure of what lied in that room, so he'd kept him away from it. The visceral reaction he'd had to a particular experiment drew Szayel's entire focus. Soon after collecting himself, Uryu talked to the fraccion about something and retired to his room, where he sat on the chair for a few hours straight. They came for him when Szayel would usually be busy in the main lab, which he was, and took the Quincy to a smaller area of his lab that contained the trap door. After seeing them exit through the door, Szayel left through the other door and sped around to catch them as soon as they exited the lab.

He sighed and closed out of the surveillance feed. Whatever Uryu found out would be revealed to him in a mad rant, possibly including the weak punches and attempted tackles the Quincy was now infamous for. Szayel tried to focus back on his experiment regarding the Stag Beetle, but he was quickly pulling up the live feed of Uryu sleeping on the dissection table. He'd purposefully left him in the other room because having him in the main lab would distract him from work, but it seemed like the boy would cause his infocus no matter where he lay.

**2.5**

Uryu could feel the cold table under his body and the tubes once more protruding from his arms. This was getting old. He opened his eyes with less resistance than normal and found no comfort in the sterile lights above him. Normally, this would be the que for him to start tearing tubes out of his arms, but this situation was nothing but normal. Things had been going well, he'd started almost enjoying his capture, but the death of Keigo Asano was not something he could overlook. Unlike Renji, who was a trained warrior, willing to risk his life for the betterment of all three worlds, Keigo was completely innocent. He was a normal high schooler who wanted nothing to do with Hollow, Shinigami… or Quincy. And yet, he was now dead: mercilessly torn apart by a hoard of relentless Hollow. After learning the truth, he'd tried to escape, but to no avail. Szayel caught him, killed the two fraccion he'd hoped to help, and made clear the futility of breaking out of the lab. Uryu was powerless, especially when sized up against the Octava Espada. If he couldn't defeat Szayel with all of his powers and the assistance of the now deceased Lieutenant, how would he escape on his own with no power at all?

The only thing he could do now was await Kurosaki's pending arrival. Of course, he wasn't quite sure if the substitute was even coming or not. Uryu was unsure of the amount of time he'd already spent in this prison, but it felt like forever. Since Kurosaki was not here yet, he was most likely dead. Or maybe he just decided that Uryu was not worth the time it would take to save him. They were enemies, after all. No matter what pretty words had been said to him, Uryu was always aware of this fact. Soul Society would rather him dead, this much he knew, so maybe they just called it good enough when he had disappeared. Kisuke had acted as a boss but he most likely felt more malice towards Uryu than he projected. Just like Soul Society, it was likely that Kisuke prefered him dead. One less person to question his motives. Rukia and Orihime were his more probable saviors, they might feel obligated to search for him since he'd come to save them both, but it was still possible that they wouldn't count him as a savior, considering he'd never really saved anyone, and feel no obligation to help him. Chad was the only person he'd called a friend, but that man's quiet demeanor was suspicious. It was entirely possible that Chad had never felt the same friendship towards Uryu and he might not feel any need to find the Quincy who sat in front of him in Ochi-sensie's class. He'd never had hoped that Ryuken would save him, Ryuken had missed enough of his life so it wasn't a shock that he was once again absent. He'd brought this on himself, he was sure. He had no one to rely on at home so why should things be any different in Hueco Mundo?

Uryu couldn't count the negative thoughts flooding over him. Similar to when he was in the box, he felt helpless and had seemingly no hope. Rather than making any effort to do anything to escape this headspace, he simply lay staring up at the sterile lights. They offered him no comfort, but they were better than the back of his eyelids.

"What's this? Are you finally awake?" Szayel's voice pierced the still air, creating ripples in Uryu's flooding thought stream. He didn't look towards the Espada and made no attempt at a reply to the rhetorical question hanging in the air. "If you're feeling well, you should get up. There's lots of work to do. My competent lab assistant decided to take a couple days off and my other incompetent lab assistants have been fired. Everything's backed up, so I do want your skills." Szayel waited a patient second for the boy to respond, but was met with silence. This was frustrating, to say the least. He didn't have the time to deal with a moping Quincy. "What is it? Is it that I caught you? Did I hurt your pride? I understand that that is very important to you, but isn't it more pathetic to mope about like this?" He again was met with silence. "Alright, I'll leave you for now, but I'll be back."

Szayel returned a few hours later to find the same scene: the boy was still laying, eyes stuck to the ceiling. This wasn't an entirely new thing for the scientist, he had spent a large portion of his career studying human behavior, but it was usually for a clearer reason than he was currently observing. The only difference between today and the days before was the death of two Hollow he knew the boy did not particularly care for. Their deaths would not cause him to collapse in on himself, Szayel knew. It was more likely the Quincy would choose to get up onto his high horse and work himself sick berating his captor than sink into such a fine depression. There had to be more he wasn't understanding… but what was there? Flared temper from the disposal of Lumina and Verona? Damaged pride from his easy defeat? It had to be something bigger, something that would cause-

Uryu had thrown up upon reading a certain document. Reading that fueled his desire to leave, which led to this depression. If he was not mistaken, which Szayel rarely was, the cause of his lifeless assistant was on that paper. The paper Uryu had folded and placed into his sock, hoping to hide it from Szayel; to Uryu's credit, the scientist had forgotten about the tucked away document until this moment. Szayel walked closer to the Quincy, "what did you find?" Uryu flinched as Szayel moved towards his feet rather than his head. As Szayel reached for his sock, Uryu shot up and pulled his legs in. The suddenness of his movements shocked Szayel but did not deter him. He moved forward, faster this time, and pushed Uryu flat, holding his left shoulder and right hip, effectively pinning him down. The boy started kicking his legs around, trying to cause any sort of pain to the Espada, forcing Szayel to get fully on top of the table, on top of him, to hold his legs down with his own legs. Shifting, he managed to grab the hands that were now taking shots at him and pin them both to the table with his left hand. A sense of satisfaction due to completely and easily restraining the Quincy washed over him and distracted him from the actual person beneath him who took the distraction as an opportunity to do the only attack he could. Uryu quickly threw his head up and spat in the Espada's cocky face.

Szayel punched the boy with his free hand, causing his head to snap to the right hard enough to slam into the table. Whether it was the dazed look as his head slowly lolled back to center or the now purple bruises that decorated his eyes and jaw, Szayel was unsure. No matter the reason, the Espada found himself unable to resist the sudden urge to grab Uryu's face and press their lips together. Uryu's surprise caused him to gasp, giving Szayel the opportunity to stick his tongue into the others mouth. His hand held tightly onto the boy's face, not allowing his jaw to close back down. Uryu was saying something, or rather trying to, but Szayel couldn't be deterred from his task by the noise. Soon, his grip loosened on the Quincy's face and he began tracing down his neck. Once his hand met the boy's collar bone, Uryu bit down hard on his tongue. The moment was ruined and Szayel was shocked back to reality. He threw a quick punch to the Quincy's gut, which caused him to release the scientist's tongue. Szayel got off Uryu and stood back on the floor. The boy was too winded to say any smart retort as the scientist quickly fled the room.

Szayel couldn't calm down; there seemed to be something wrong with his body and mind: they were both racing. Touching the Quincy had sent something through him he'd only felt when first becoming an Arrancar. There was an addictive energy that quickly flooded his body and caused something in him to short out. Everything about touching Uryu was exciting; his skin had been hot, almost feverish, to the touch, his bones were prominent and felt resistant under his hand, and the electricity that flooded through him at the meeting of their lips was something so surreal and new that he found himself trying to burn the memory into his brain.

Unlike some of the other more animalistic Espada, Szayel had never felt a strong sexually driven desire. He'd studied the subject before but that was purely for research and he'd never found much personal interest in it. If he had, that would have caused him more concern. Having a vested interest in a subject instantly made you biased and no longer a scientific observer. Which is why touching Uryu was bad. Wanting to push his hands down the boy's chest, to his stomach, to his-well, it certainly showed bias. Was all his previous research on the Quincy biased? It would be hard to tell. Since when had there been an attraction? Was this new or old? And why did he feel this way? Szayel couldn't help remembering the purple bruises tracing his sharp face. That had to have been the cause since he hadn't previously felt this strong attraction to the Quincy. And that was good. Everything is fine because the only reason why he'd felt a brief attraction to his subject was the bruises that decorated his face. All his previous research was safe and, after the bruises heal, any new experiment would be safe.

**2.6**

Uryu lay on his side catching his breath and trying to get any understanding of the events that had just transpired. This assault was of a different nature than normal and it had started with a disorienting punch. He blushed and quickly wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. Having an Espada as your first kiss wasn't in any way ideal, but that wasn't where his concerns ended. The kiss had been an awkward bumping of lips, teeth, and tongue, but soon the Espada was rubbing up against his leg and feeling down the side of his neck. For someone of Szayel's nature, it was easy to determine he got off on causing physical pain, but it was still surprising for Uryu to have caused such a reaction from the Espada. It was also ridiculously interesting to know the Espada was dealing with something as human as being pent up. Still, Uryu recognized that anything Szayel did was not a laughing manner. Everything could quickly blow up on him, and he was afraid of the Octavia's lack of control.

While he spent a long while fretting over the next time he saw the Espada, it seemed the Espada was not as concerned. He came back within the hour and chose only to command Uryu back to his room. When met with no response from the Quincy, Szayel threw out a few threats of broken limbs. Not wanting a repeat of earlier, Uryu stood and followed Szayel back to his own room. He was instructed to stay here and it quickly became clear to Uryu that Szayel had locked the door behind him.

He laid on the bed with a heavy sigh. While he was unsure of anything actually beneficial to do, he felt uneasy simply waiting. What was he waiting for again? Oh, yeah: a savior. He stood quickly, shaking out some familiar feelings. No, he was not doing this again. Instead of sinking into this depression, he needed to get ahead of this. For everyone who had lost themselves, for Renji, Kiego, Lumina, and Verona, he had to stay sane and somewhat collected. So what if he was stuck for now? There would be an opening, someone as cocky as Szayel always had an opening, all he had to do was wait.

Uryu sat up and snagged the folded paper from his sock. This was what he had to motivate him to stay alive and well. It was proof that someone's life had ended and he needed to tell someone because Keigo had been more than Hollow food. But it was dangerous to have it on him, anything could happen. He needed to hide it somewhere the Espada would not bother looking. Looking around his room, Uryu found himself left with few options. The closet was too expected, the bathroom was risky because it could get damaged, under his bed felt cliche, and those were his only real options in such an empty room. He paced around the room a few times before deciding on the best of his few options. He quickly stuffed the paper under the couch cushion for safe keeping. This was all he had, something of a reminder of who he was, despite the fact that the paper did not address him in the slightest. Szayel had stripped him of his clothing, his hair, his weapons, and his freedom. Nothing was truly his, not even his own life. But that was alright because Szayel couldn't take away his core beliefs and his truest being; he'd learned an amazing amount from his mother and his sensei and there was no way Szayel could take that away from him. Stripping him of his weapons and uniform did not strip him of his Quincy identity and pride. Being a Quincy is more than appearance or ability; it was at base value an identity he could use to describe what makes up Uryu Ishida. Having this paper gave him something to bet his pride on. He'd get it home no matter what.


End file.
